PRIMARY INDUSTRY

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 05, Issue 84, 29 July 1942, Page 2

PRIMARY INDUSTRY

| MORE VITAL THAN SECONDARY Primary jire; ■:?uoli<in must he rejjarded defini Lely hs ol' pr\ma v v iinportance to New Zealand, said M:W. P. Griffith, presid-.mt of the New Plymouth Rotary Club, when the elulj was entertained at Leppertoil by settlers of the district. The lime had come, he aided, when [arming must be made more popular and more attractive, not only to keep l'ariner.s' sons and daughters on the land, but also to atiraet young people from the towns to the counfry. Primary production could not lie maintained if 8') per cent, of tnc ])opu'ation li\\>d in the cities attending to distribution, leaving only 20 per cent, on the land to produce. Ihere had been praiseworthy at-

:l tempts in axle with some success to establish secondary industries in 11 New Zealand, but the future prosperity of the country depended on ' its primary production, Mr GriiTith emphasised. Ho considered there would be more free trade after the war and that therefore secondary industries in New Zealand, which were not drawing their supplies from the products of the land., could not hope to compete with those, countries where through force of circumstances labour worked long hours. In piimary production, however, New Zealand, with it.s hours of sunshine , and its fertile soil, couid vsuccessiully meet a!I 'competition. -